"We don't understand why they stole the blood sample. Perhaps they thought there was cash hidden in the flask," Faya Etienne Tolno, a Guinea Red Cross spokesperson, told the AP.

Dr. Barry Mournie, who works with the country’s Ebola response committee, said handling the blood would “be dangerous.”

"I can assure you, however, that the sample-transportation procedures will now be strengthened to avoid such disappointments," Moumie told the AP.

Dr. Hans Rosling, who works with Liberia on the country’s Ebola response, said difficulties transporting samples around the world requires rules for moving hazardous substances.

In Liberia, "we use specifically allocated motorbikes and cars. We use what's available and what's reasonable. We have to organize things as we go along," he told the news organization. "It may have been the correct decision in Guinea (to use a taxi) and the robbery was just a sad mishap. There's no way we can secure transport in all of this area. It was a good initiative to try to get the sample out."